An updated Industry Biosecurity Plan (IBP) for the Nursery Industry was launched at the joint Nursery and Garden Industry of Victoria and International Plant Propagators Society Australia Conference in Melbourne on 16 May by Greg Fraser, Plant Health Australia Executive Director and CEO.

The third version of the IBP provides a framework to coordinate biosecurity activities and investment for Australia’s nursery and garden industry. It provides a mechanism for industry, governments and stakeholders to better prepare for and respond to, incursions of pests that could have significant impacts on the nursery and garden industry. It also aims to assist production nursery owners and managers to evaluate the biosecurity risks within their everyday production and business activities, formally identify and prioritise exotic plant pests (not currently present in Australia) and focus on future biosecurity challenges.

The IBP compliments a number of industry developed biosecurity resources including the industry production nursery biosecurity program BioSecure HACCP, a Biosecurity Manual for the Nursery Production Industry and the recently released Pest Fact Sheets. All of these resources are available electronically on the NGIA website.

Plant Health Australia coordinated the update of the IBP through a partnership approach using government and industry resources and expertise. They consider the IBP for the Nursery Industry as one of the most important biosecurity plans developed, given that production nurseries supply nursery stock to many other plant industries in Australia. During his presentation, Greg Fraser commended the dedication of the nursery industry to biosecurity.